Effect of Iron Oxide Nanoparticle Shape on Doxorubicin Drug Delivery Toward LNCaP and PC-3 Cell Lines

In this paper, we investigated the delivery efficiency of doxorubicin by magnetite nanoparticles with different shape to LNCaP and PC-3 prostate cancer cell lines. Cubic and spherical nanoparticles of magnetite were synthesized in organic medium and hydrophilized by non-ionic surfactant Pluronic F127—polyethylene-polypropylene oxide polymer. Doxorubicin was loaded into hydrophobic region of polymeric shell. We have observed that cytotoxicity and distribution of doxorubicin in cells changed significantly in case of drug loaded into nanoparticles in comparison with free doxorubicin. We have shown that this change is due to two main reasons: (1) slower internalization of nanoparticles by cells compared to free doxorubicin and (2) slow and incomplete release of doxorubicin from nanoparticle polymer shell. Interestingly, nanoparticle shape influenced cytotoxicity and the dynamics of drug accumulation inside cancer cells. We have found that doxorubicin-loaded cubic nanoparticles were more toxic for both cell lines compared to spherical ones. Moreover, doxorubicin from cubic nanoparticles accumulated in cells faster than the drug loaded in spherical nanoparticles. So, our work shows that for efficient drug delivery, not only size and coating should be taken into account but also the shape of initial core as it plays an important role in nanoparticle interaction with cells.